Rinkey

Here's a short version.

I used to have terrible pain in my shoulder and the doctors called it rotator cuff something or other. I originally hurt it in a skiing incident,
but the intense pain hung on for over a couple years and actually got worse over time. I went through all sorts of therapy, etc but nothing really helped.
That was about 16- 17 years ago.
Finally a friend of mine gave me Dr. Sarno's Healing Back Pain. She didn't say a word, just gave me the book.
I took a look at it and promptly put it on a shelf.

It wasn't until about 9 years ago that I was having really really bad back pain (just another tms equivalent) and was at the end of my rope with doctors, therapy and pain that I took that book back down off the shelf and started reading... and reading and reading. I got his taped lectures and watched a lot, over and over.
The reading really did the trick for me and after I understood that I had tms and started the work and journaling I started getting better! It took time, but it was worth it!

Have been a recovered tms'r for about 6 years now and am interested in participating here on the
Wiki to help others along their journey. (actually 'recovered' might be 'discover/uncovered' since starting the read on the Pre

Longer Version: This is a little more detailed than the short version but is only going to hit the major tms symptoms and at the end tell you what I did about all the pain.

1976 - College- eczema, headaches, ibs, tmj, all symptoms were non-injury related

1980- 1988 -After school and starting a new business – fairly pain free for years. Until a tennis accident started plantar fasciitis. Had to stop playing for many months. Neck pain also.

1989 on- severe shoulder pain, migraines. The shoulder pain started from a skiing accident. Shoulder recovered but the pain lasted for years. I went to two of the best shoulder doctors in the Indianapolis area and both told me the same thing—there’s nothing we can do about your pain, there’s nothing structurally wrong with your shoulder. Had to stop playing tennis again! This is about the time when an assistant of mine gave me Sarno’s Healing Back Pain. So that’s about 1991 or so…approximately 16 to 17 years ago.
As my short story explains, I read a little of the book and thought, “this isn’t me at ALL” so the book went onto a shelf.

Fast forward to about 1998 – I was in a car accident – rear ended- and the back pain that resulted from that didn’t resolve itself. In fact it got worse! I tried all sorts of things- massage therapy a few chiropractor visits but nothing helped, until I had another injury!

This next episode became the beginning to the end of tms for me….This accident was minor- I fell off a short foot stool that I was standing on and hurt my tailbone. This was about 6-7 yrs ago and as you’ve already guessed the pain didn’t go away. In fact it got worse! After about 4 months of severe pain I went to an orthopedic group. The pain had gotten so bad that I eventually had to design and draft standing at my drafting tables and spent a great deal of time lying on the floor. I couldn’t drive a car for more than 30 minutes and couldn’t sit in a chair for that amount of time either. I had given up walking for miles, bike riding, geocaching, standing for any length of time and could barely do my weekly volunteer time cooking at Second Helpings- a hunger relief program.
The doctors did the usual MRI’s and told me I had sacroiliac joint dysfunction. They sent me to physical therapy, chiropractors, tried different drugs and thankfully I’m allergic to pain relievers and narcotics, so eventually all of this nonsense came to an end. After several injections into my sacrum they told me there wasn’t anything more they could do besides trying “prolotherapy”. I went home and looked up this new word… basically it means injecting sugar water into the joints. Now all of this hocus-pocus had dragged out for about 6 months, so when I read about this “new” therapy, I thought to myself, these doctors clearly didn't know what the true diagnosis was and were shooting in the dark.

That’s when for some reason the light bulb came on and I took Healing Back Pain back down off the shelf… 16 years later. It saved my life... I was at my ropes end and there wasn’t enough left to hang myself!
After reading HBP, I got his videos and also read the Divided Mind… both of them-- over and over and over and started the daily program in the DM. And I also started journaling.
So maybe you’re wondering how, Rinkey did you start healing the pain? It wasn’t easy but basically to explain it simply, I started a timeline working my way back in time. Taking a good hard ‘Backward’ look into each injury, the resulting pain, and most importantly what was going on in my life at that time.
What events, feelings and emotions were stewing at that time?

It took a great deal of time, courage and patience to begin my recovery. It’s something that is ongoing in my life and is part of my daily life. Mostly pain free now a days, I’d say 95% of the time. I think tms is a blessing in disguise for me, because it makes me aware of emotions that cause pain for me whether it’s a ‘pain in the neck or a pain in the butt’ it’s there and keeps me in tuned in!! And as Matthew so wisely put it.. ‘what are the usual suspects’ that are causing my pain??
If you’ve read this far- you can recover too.

I hope this helps you along with your healing journey. This Wiki is the best!